Wind Turbines, Wind Farms, and the Potential

The United States accounts for over 61,000 Mw of wind power generated annually through large wind farms, second only to China in the adoption and use of this green wind turbine technology. According to multiple research agencies including the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy, the United States has a potential to generate nine times its current power consumption and could supply over 20% of its power through wind power. Industrial power generation notwithstanding, New York-based advanced wind turbine solutions firm Kohilo Wind has developed a turnkey micro-turbine system that enables portable residential power generation.

Wind Turbine – Unlocking Urban Power Generation

The secret to the Kohilo — the Hawaiian term for ‘gentle breeze’—solution lies in a patented vertical axis wind turbine blade that is unique in its design in being able to generate significantly greater power in urban or semi-urban environments. Invented by mechanical engineer Derek Grassman, this Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) harnesses wind power across a 124-mph range from wind speeds as low as 3 mph. The breakthrough in portable wind harnessing technology came from the design of a compact, lightweight, easily assembled

wind turbine

that may be deployed in standalone or array form to generate the energy required to power lights, fans, security systems and other active and passive peripherals.

Portability and Return on Investment

One of the significant and traditional challenges to portable wind power generation has been the high cost-to-output ratio of conventional VWAT systems, further hampered by the lack of scalability and low efficiency. Urban and semi-urban areas present low-turbulence wind systems that do not aid power generation. The Kohilo turbine uses patented advancements in wind turbine construction to create a floating a magnetic bearing that minimizes friction and a noiseless iron-free axial flux generator to maximize output. The turbine blade profile uses scientific attack angles as well as carefully measured drag and lift in order to generate power for over 80% of its active life, creating and ecology friendly solution that generates quicker returns on investment. The portability of the system allows for its installation on rooftops, grain silos and even trailers. The company looks to expand to micro-generation solutions that can power handheld devices.

Today, the conversation about domestic clean energy solutions takes center stage at a local and global level as portable home-based power generation systems such as solar and wind turbine power harness efficiency of scale to contribute meaningfully to decrease humankind’s adverse impact on local ecology while making green technology affordable to use.

With the earth’s natural resources running dry, scientists have started tapping into alternate forms of raw energy, including solar energy derived from the suns’ rays. In addition to being inexpensive, solar energy can act as a suitable alternative to fossil fuels and is extremely eco friendly when compared to the latter.

Of late, the increased demand for alternate fuel has shifted the attention to vast desert plains that can offer great potential in generating power using solar, wind or water energy. Moreover, since deserts remain deserted for the most part, setting up solar power plants in these regions can help generate abundant amounts of power and other forms of energy as well.

A desert solar power plant has its own share of pros and cons to be considered. Here is an excerpt on what lies in store for power plants located in deserts around the world.

Pros of a Desert Solar Power Plant

The best thing about a desert is its topography which is essentially miles and miles of barren land just waiting to be utilized. Most of these deserts are barren and flat surfaced, thereby making it easier for the construction and maintenance of large-scale solar power plants in the region.

Most deserts also have less cloud cover and better solar angles, which help increase the total power output per square meter. Consider this amazing potential applied to a desert like the Sahara, which stretches for nearly 9 million square kilometers. Fitting this entire area with solar panels would yield a total power output of nearly 750 terawatts, which of course is renewable.

Another advantage of utilizing a desert for a power plant is that these areas rarely experience rainfall and remain dry and sunny for the most part of the year. The year round sunny climate would benefit both solar thermal and photovoltaic solar installations.

Cons of a Desert Solar Power Plant

The hot climate of a desert can have its share of cons for a solar power plant. Temperature extremes of over 50 degrees Celsius (experienced on a typical day in the summer) would make it harder for the solar and the photovoltaic panels to convert sunlight into electricity.

Deserts are prone to dust storms that can cover the solar panels with multiple layers of dust and debris. This in turn would reduce the efficiency of the mirrors used in these installations in absorbing sunlight and generating power from it.

Another disadvantage of a desert solar power plant is that it would not get sufficient water to cool off the solar thermal and photovoltaic installations. The efficiency of these installations would be greatly reduced if they happen to overheat continuously. Therefore, they need to be cooled down at regular intervals with water, which is a scarce commodity in deserts.

Transmission of the power generated at a desert solar power plant to different parts of the world is a difficult and expensive process. In addition to costing extra to transmit the power to different destinations, a small percentage of the total output power would be lost during transmission.

As you can see there are some great advantages and some significant disadvantages to building massive solar power plants in our desert, time will tell if it is a sustainable long term source of power.

Hydrogen is the fuel of the future as it is friendly to the environment, unlike other fuel sources that emit harmful gases into the atmosphere to add to global warming. Thus, this clean green source of power is being utilized in some upcoming vehicles that run on hydrogen fuel cells. Check out some of these hydrogen-powered, zero-emission rides being introduced in the auto market.

Hyundai Tucson ix35: Keeping in view its green practices, Hyundai has introduced its hydrogen fuel cell-based electric vehicle called ix35 or Tucson. This vehicle has a high-pressure tank that can hold hydrogen of up to 12.3 pounds. This hydrogen-electric motor can reach a top speed of 99 mph. A full tank of hydrogen can take you on a 400-mile ride. Its modularized assembly reduces time to build up each vehicle, and thus the company is aiming to ease mass production of such vehicles.

BMW Hydrogen 7: It is a limited-production hydrogen vehicle based on BMW’s traditional 7-series vehicle line. This modified car allows both hydrogen and gasoline combustion. Thus, it has a bivalent engine. Unlike hydrogen fuel cell-based vehicles from other brands, BMW has based this vehicle on an internal combustion engine that burns hydrogen to fuel the car.

Mercedes-Benz F-Cell: This is another hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicle that has been developed by Daimler AG. Offering two different versions, F-Cell’s latest model offers a 100-kW powerful electric engine. The latest version also comes with an improved range of 250 miles that was made possible by creating more space to hold compressed hydrogen tanks.

Audi A7: In line with other brands launching their hydrogen vehicles, Audi is also going to send its A7 into testing. Though Audi has tried on hydrogen fuel-cell power in its previous vehicles too, it is not yet known how A7 would be powered by hydrogen. Still, hydrogen A7 would be known for its size and luxury.

Toyota FCHV: Toyota has been designing its fuel cell hybrid vehicle (FCHV) that will again be based on hydrogen. There would be compressed hydrogen tanks to power a 90-kW fuel cell. This powertrain would have in parallel, a nickel-metal hydride accumulator battery. Both the battery and the fuel cell can power the motor together, as well as singly. Toyota has been aiming to cut greenhouse gas emission levels with its five generations of FCHV.

The ever increasing demand for power has made us look out for alternate forms of renewable energy like solar power, hydro-electric power, geo-thermal power and wind power etc. One such renewable source of energy that has been gaining popularity over the past few years is the Piezoelectric Technology that generates power from the electromagnetic properties of some minerals found on earth.

The basic principle behind Piezoelectricity is simple. Certain electromagnetic materials can generate electric fields when subjected to mechanical stress. Take for instance a floor or staircase fitted with this technology to harness the pressure caused by footsteps and convert the same to electricity.

The floor or staircase would contain sensors that would absorb the pressure exerted on them by footsteps and transfer this pressure to piezo materials like ceramics or crystals. These piezo materials would in turn convert this mechanical stress to electric charges and store it. The stored energy is then used as a renewable power source.

A prototype for the piezoelectric technology designed and developed by Innowattech has been successfully tested over a ten meter stretch of road in Israel. Accordingly, several piezoelectric generators were installed underneath the asphalt to absorb the mechanical energy generated by cars driving by. This piezoelectric generators transform the stored mechanical energy to electricity which is then converted to power. A successful test implementation saw a total power output of 2000Wh for the 10 meter strip of road. Innowattech plans to expand the test area to nearly a kilometer in the near future.

Successful implementation of piezoelectric technology on roads can therefore yield power outputs of nearly 200KWh for every kilometer of a single line road, and nearly 1MWh for every kilometer of a four lane road (or) highway. The technology can also be used in other areas like airport runways, pedestrian walkways and even discotheques. For example, several piezoelectric sensors embedded under the dance floor can absorb the mechanical energy created by the moving bodies and convert it to enough electricity to power almost 60% of the total energy needs of the discotheque.

Current uses of Piezoelectric Technology

As of now, piezoelectric technology is being used as high power and voltage sources, for medical imaging (in ultrasonic transducers), in acoustic emission testing and in industrial nondestructive testing. Continued efforts to harness the extreme potential of this technology in smaller, portable gadgets is underway. And it won’t come as a surprise if in a few years’ time, house floors would have piezoelectric sensors to generate electricity for the entire house.

We all know that global warming is real and the day is not far away when it will cause the polar icecaps to meltdown and will result in many low lying coastal areas to get submerged in seawater. The latest studies revealed that the meltdown of a small portion of glaciers around the world has already caused the sea level to go up a little bit and if this meltdown continues at the present rate, then many cities will have a very bleak future. Besides submerging the coastal areas, global warming will also result in other natural calamities like hurricanes, tsunamis and floods due to lashing rainfalls. With the possibility of cities and coastal areas going under water in the future, it has become necessary to devise plans beforehand in order to deal with such situations successfully. Can floating architecture can be the ultimate solution for the future generations?

As the houses and buildings built on land make them vulnerable to different kinds of natural calamities like earthquake, flood etc. so, it has become increasing necessary to invent new technologies which will no longer make our houses vulnerable to the natural disasters. Floating architecture can bring a revolutionary change in the technology we use today to build houses and buildings. With the help of the floating technology, we will be able to build efficient and sustainable houses on the water. This practice could prevent the expected mass exodus from the coastal areas to the dry lands in the event of sea water submerging the low lying areas due to rising sea level. This technology may even allow the building of a fully functional city on the water, not beside it.

Floating architecture will not only help in solving the future problem of large areas going underwater, but it can also solve the current problem of inland housing shortage. With the increasing population, it has become difficult to find living spaces on land, with floating architecture this problem could be solved to a great extent. For example, the Rotterdam’s Floating Pavilion is designed and constructed by using the floating architecture technology. This unique structure is made up of a special type of foil called ETFE, which is also lighter than glass. It will keep the structure floating on water and will allow it to withstand the rising sea level easily.

On the other hand, BOA is another grand project based on floating architecture that will provide sustainable and safe living space for almost 15,000 people. So, it is evident that the floating architecture could have a huge impact on the way we live in and around coastal waters in the future. Will this be the answer to the rising tide? Time will tell!

Check any online electronics store and you will surely get a wide variety of solar chargers promising to charge everything to a cellphone to a laptop. Portable solar chargers have seen a lot of development from solar chargers that didn’t have any onboard battery or chargers that took a lot of hours, sometimes even days, to recharge their onboard batteries. Innovating once more for the sake of the environment, Powertraveller has come up with another solar charger – the Solarmonkey Adventurer.

The portable solar charger’s USP is its onboard heavy duty battery and its rugged construction making it ideal for inhospitable locations around the world. The charger features 2500mAh internal lithium-polymer battery that can charge a cellphone two to three times over. Charging the battery takes about 12 hours, which is still too much for our liking.

The best part is that the charger can simultaneously send solar generated electricity to the onboard battery and an external 5V USB device, which can be anything from your cellphone to your navigation device. Power is generated by two efficient polysilicon solar panels and is dispersed via a variety of adapters for some of the most popular gadgets.

The solar panels are packed in a removable, water and shock-proof clam shell. The case has several pockets for you to store your gadgets or the adapters. Moreover, with the inclusion of a velcro strap, you can attach the gadget to your backpack to make it harness renewable solar energy while you continue your journey.

The race to generate renewable energy doesn’t just end on wind turbines and solar power. Inventors plan to make use of every possible energy source to create some useful watts. We recently reported about upcoming technologies that can help generate clean renewable energy while you just walk around. However, human nature is above all things lazy and for lazy, deskbound people, Swedish designer Eddi Törnberg has created an office desk, enabling them to contribute to the green movement.

The desk is designed to run on principles of Seebeck effect, piezoelectricity and even photosynthesis. The desk features a thermoelectric generator embedded on its chair, which gets a little hot as the desk user sits on it. The temperature difference between the heated surface in contact and the ambience helps generate renewable electricity. Secondly, as the user moves his/her butt on the chair, electricity is generated by a piezoelectric generator.

The final source of clean energy on the desk happens to be a plant. The plant has been modified to work a little like a potato battery. The array of these passive generators, helps office generators generate renewable energy, which could mean a few more minutes of laptop battery life or a few battery chargers of your cellphone.

The United Kingdom is one of the most historical places in the world with many historical sites and buildings of significance that were built throughout its vast history in the country. The National Trust for Place of Historic or Natural Beauty popularly known as just the National Trust is a conservation organization in the United Kingdom which owns and maintains many of the historical properties in Wales, England and Northern Ireland. This is an organization that was established in the late 19th century and its current president is H.R.H. Charles, The Prince of Wales. The main aim of this organization is to protect the historical sites like castles, manors, historical buildings, gardens and many such other structures of historical relevance and beauty.

Being Eco Friendly

Organizations, companies and individuals all over the world today are becoming aware of the need to become more eco friendly, conserve energy and not harm the environment. As responsible citizens of this world it is our duty to do whatever we can to meet this goal. This awareness of being more eco friendly has come about in the last few decades as we are seeing the disastrous consequences of our environment and climate due to irresponsible human activity. In the previous centuries environmental protection was not an important issue as it was not as badly affected as it has been in the last century or so.

The National Trust has also taken up this initiative and given a green signal to the project to make the castles in United Kingdom more Eco friendly. Being eco friendly helps save our planet for the future generations and it will give the future generations a chance to live in a better environment and explore the historical structures and beauty.

Eco Castles

When the castles were built many centuries ago they were not designed to be very eco friendly. However the National Trust plans to spend around 3.5 million Pounds initially to make the castle eco castles or environmentally friendly castles. The charity is looking to make this a long term project and the current duration of the project being fixed at 5 years. It may invest a lot more money after the success of the first venture. There are various steps that they have planned to make the properties more eco friendly. For example Biomass Boilers, Hydropower technology and heat pumps are to be installed at 5 National Trust properties.

Another worry economically speaking for the National Trust is that the energy costs to maintain these properties are rising every year. Also mostly these properties are using non renewable sources of energy which are costly in the long run and also harmful to the environment. By using more renewable sources of energy and becoming more eco friendly the National Trust plans to reduce the energy costs as well as become more eco friendly. It is a great decision as the costs reduce. Also it reduces the dependency on non renewable sources of energy which pollute the environment. This makes it more eco friendly.

This is a long term project as many historical structures and gardens are maintained by the National Trust. If they can reduce the dependency of these buildings on fossil fuels and take more steps to become eco friendly in many different ways it will contribute to a great extent towards making the country of United Kingdom more eco friendly. It will also inspire people and tourists visiting these places and spread the awareness towards the need of being more eco friendly. It is a great initiative by the National Trust.

When one decides on the interior decoration of the home, many rooms have to be designed according to the type of room, whether it is a kitchen, living room or a bedroom. Also another important aspect is to consider is who is going to be using that room. For example an interior design of a children’s bedroom is usually different from a master bedroom.

Nowadays the design and décor of houses is done in a more eco friendly way. This is because people are realizing the importance of sustainable eco friendly living and are also taking steps while designing their homes to make it more eco friendly. This helps the individuals or family live a more sustainable lifestyle and reduce their carbon footprint on the planet. The need to reduce one’s carbon footprint means that we as individuals have to help conserve and save the environment which is already getting damaged by human activities. Small contributions from millions of individuals can help reduce the impact of human activities on the environment and also help to stop or reduce climate change, global warming, pollution and other harmful environment related impacts.

The following are some of the eco friendly designs and items for the children’s room of the house:

Sustainable lumber or wood can be used to make the furniture of the children’s bedroom. Using bamboo and other sustainable lumber from companies that adopt sustainable forest practices will help save the environment in a small way.

The lighting in the children’s room should be LED lighting which has many benefits. It is very cost effective as it lasts a lot longer than the conventional bulbs. Also it uses much lesser energy as compared to the conventional lights. Also they do not emit heat energy into the room like other lights which raises the temperature of the room and the atmosphere around the lights.

Paint the walls using eco friendly paints with low or no VOCs. VOCs can be harmful to the environment as well as the fumes of these paints with VOCs can be harmful to the kids. Use washable wall paints as kids like to draw on walls. The drawing on walls that have washable paints can be easily cleaned later without the paint getting washed away.

Use large windows that will allow sunlight in the rooms and make the atmosphere of the children’s bedrooms brighter and positive. Also with the sunlight entering the room, the electric light will not be used a lot which will save energy. Make sure the large windows are safe for the kids and put grills and other safety precautions for the windows.

Use recyclable lamps and showpieces in the kid’s rooms. Nowadays many shops also sell eco friendly toys. One can buy these toys for their children so that they play with toys that are more eco friendly. Limit the use of plastic in the interior décor of the room and use it only when absolutely necessary.

Another innovative solution is to design a huge drawing board in the children’s room so that the children draw and write on that board and do not waste paper for their everyday drawings.

While decorating and designing the children’s bedrooms one must try the above ideas as well as think and research more innovative ideas that can make the children’s room more eco friendly and at the same time safe for the kids. By adopting eco friendly ideas while designing the rooms of the house including the children’s room one can contribute in a small way towards the conservation of the environment.